Marxian cwass deory asserts dat an individuaw’s position widin a cwass hierarchy is determined by his or her rowe in de production process, and argues dat powiticaw and ideowogicaw consciousness is determined by cwass position, uh-hah-hah-hah.[1] A cwass is dose who share common economic interests, are conscious of dose interests, and engage in cowwective action which advances dose interests.[2] Widin Marxian cwass deory, de structure of de production process forms de basis of cwass construction, uh-hah-hah-hah.

To Marx, a cwass is a group wif intrinsic tendencies and interests dat differ from dose of oder groups widin society, de basis of a fundamentaw antagonism between such groups. For exampwe, it is in de waborer's best interest to maximize wages and benefits and in de capitawist's best interest to maximize profit at de expense of such, weading to a contradiction widin de capitawist system, even if de waborers and capitawists demsewves are unaware of de cwash of interests.

Marxian cwass deory has been open to a range of awternate positions, most notabwy from schowars such as E. P. Thompson and Mario Tronti. Bof Thompson and Tronti suggest cwass consciousness widin de production process precedes de formation of productive rewationships. In dis sense, Marxian cwass deory often rewates to discussion over pre-existing cwass struggwes.

Karw Marx's cwass deory derives from a range of phiwosophicaw schoows of dought incwuding weft Hegewianism, Scottish Empiricism, and Angwo-French powiticaw-economics. Marx's view of cwass originated from a series of personaw interests rewating to sociaw awienation and human struggwe, whereby de formation of cwass structure rewates to acute historicaw consciousness. Powiticaw-economics awso contributed to Marx's deories, centering on de concept of "origin of income" where society is divided into dree sub-groups: Rentier, Capitawist, and Worker. This construction is based on David Ricardo's deory of capitawism. Marx strengdened dis wif a discussion over verifiabwe cwass rewationships.

Marx sought to define cwass as embedded in productive rewations rader dan sociaw status. His powiticaw and economic dought devewoped towards an interest in production as opposed to distribution, and dis henceforf became a centraw deme in his concept of cwass.

Marx distinguishes one cwass from anoder on de basis of two criteria: ownership of de means of production and controw of de wabor power of oders. From dis, Marx states "Society as a whowe is more and more spwitting up into two great hostiwe camps, into two great cwasses directwy facing each oder":

I. Capitawists, or bourgeoisie, own de means of production and purchase de wabor power of oders

II. Workers, or prowetariat, do not own any means of production or de abiwity to purchase de wabor power of oders. Rader, dey seww deir own wabor power.

Cwass is dus determined by property rewations, not by income or status. These factors are determined by distribution and consumption, which mirror de production and power rewations of cwasses.

iii. A smaww, transitionaw cwass known as de petite bourgeoisie own sufficient means of production but do not purchase wabor power. Marx's Communist Manifesto faiws to properwy define de petite bourgeoisie beyond “smawwer capitawists” (Marx and Engews, 1848, 25).

iv. The “dangerous cwass”, or Lumpenprowetariat, “de sociaw scum, dat passivewy rotting mass drown off by de wowest wayers of de owd society.”

"The history of aww hiderto existing society is de history of cwass struggwes… Freeman and swave, patrician and pwebeian, word and serf, guiwd-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one anoder, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight dat each time ended, eider in a revowutionary reconstruction of society at warge, or in de common ruin of de contending cwasses.... The modern bourgeois society dat has sprouted from de ruins of feudaw society has not done away wif cwass antagonisms. It has but estabwished new cwasses, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggwe in pwace of de owd ones. Our epoch, de epoch of de bourgeoisie, possesses, however, dis distinctive feature: it has simpwified cwass antagonisms. Society as a whowe is more and more spwitting up into two great hostiwe camps, into two great cwasses directwy facing each oder: Bourgeoisie and Prowetariat.” – Communist Manifesto

Marx estabwished confwict as de key driving force of history and de main determinant of sociaw trajectories (Kingston). However, in order to understand de nature of “cwass confwict,” we must first understand dat such confwict arises from a unified cwass interest, awso known as cwass consciousness. Cwass consciousness is an aspect of Marxist deory, referring to de sewf-awareness of sociaw cwasses, de capacity to act in its own rationaw interests, or measuring de extent to which an individuaw is conscious of de historicaw tasks deir cwass (or cwass awwegiance) sets for dem.

Moreover, by definition, de objective interests of cwasses are fundamentawwy in opposition; conseqwentwy, dese opposing interests and consciousnesses eventuawwy wead to cwass confwict.

Marx first saw de devewopment of cwass confwict confined to individuaw factories and capitawists. However, given de maturation of capitawism, de wife conditions of bourgeoisie and prowetariat began to grow more disparate. This increased powarization and homogenization widin cwasses fostered an environment for individuaw struggwes to become more generawized. When increasing cwass confwict is manifested at de societaw wevew, cwass consciousness and common interests are awso increased. Conseqwentwy, when cwass consciousness is augmented, powicies are organized to ensure de duration of such interest for de ruwing cwass. Here begins de use of de struggwe for powiticaw power and cwasses become powiticaw forces.

Since de distribution of powiticaw power is determined by power over production, or power over capitaw, it is no surprise dat de bourgeois cwass uses deir weawf to wegitimatize and protect deir property and conseqwent sociaw rewations. Thus de ruwing cwass is dose who howd de economic power and make de decisions (Dahrendorf).

In Marxist deory, de capitawist stage of production consists of two main cwasses: de bourgeoisie, de capitawists who own de means of production, and de much warger prowetariat (or 'working cwass') who must seww deir own wabour power (See awso: wage wabour). This is de fundamentaw economic structure of work and property (See awso: wage wabour), a state of ineqwawity dat is normawised and reproduced drough cuwturaw ideowogy. Thus de prowetariat, in itsewf, is forced into a subservient position by de power of capitaw, which has stripped de means of production from dem. As de prowetariat becomes conscious of its situation and power, organizes itsewf, and takes cowwective powiticaw action it becomes a cwass for itsewf which has de revowutionary potentiaw to become de ruwing cwass.[2]

Max Weber critiqwed historicaw materiawism, positing dat stratification is not based purewy on economic ineqwawities but on oder status and power differentiaws. Sociaw cwass pertaining broadwy to materiaw weawf may be distinguished from status cwass based on honour, prestige, rewigious affiwiation, and so on, uh-hah-hah-hah. The conditions of capitawism and its cwass system came togeder due to a variety of "ewective affinities".[citation needed]

Marxists expwain de history of "civiwized" societies in terms of a war of cwasses between dose who controw production and dose who produce de goods or services in society. In de Marxist view of capitawism, dis is a confwict between capitawists (bourgeoisie) and wage-workers (de prowetariat). For Marxists, cwass antagonism is rooted in de situation dat controw over sociaw production necessariwy entaiws controw over de cwass which produces goods—in capitawism dis is de expwoitation of workers by de bourgeoisie.[citation needed]

Marx himsewf argued dat it was de goaw of de prowetariat itsewf to dispwace de capitawist system wif sociawism, changing de sociaw rewationships underpinning de cwass system and den devewoping into a future communist society in which: "..de free devewopment of each is de condition for de free devewopment of aww." (Communist Manifesto) This wouwd mark de beginning of a cwasswess society in which human needs rader dan profit wouwd be motive for production, uh-hah-hah-hah. In a society wif democratic controw and production for use, dere wouwd be no cwass, no state and no need for money.[citation needed]

A cwass shares a common rewationship to de means of production. That is, aww peopwe in one cwass make deir wiving in a common way in terms of ownership of de dings dat produce sociaw goods. A cwass may own dings, own wand, own peopwe, be owned, own noding but deir wabor. A cwass wiww extract tax, produce agricuwture, enswave and work oders, be enswaved and work, or work for a wage.

Subjective factors

The members wiww necessariwy have some perception of deir simiwarity and common interest. Marx termed dis Cwass consciousness. Cwass consciousness is not simpwy an awareness of one's own cwass interest (for instance, de maximisation of sharehowder vawue; or, de maximization of de wage wif de minimization of de working day), cwass consciousness awso embodies deepwy shared views of how society shouwd be organized wegawwy, cuwturawwy, sociawwy and powiticawwy.

Reproduction of cwass rewations

Cwass as a set of sociaw rewationships dat is reproduced from one generation to de next.

The first criterion divides a society into de owners and non-owners of means of production, uh-hah-hah-hah. In capitawism, dese are capitawist (bourgeoisie) and prowetariat. Finer divisions can be made, however: de most important subgroup in capitawism being petite bourgeoisie (smaww bourgeoisie), peopwe who possess deir own means of production but utiwize it primariwy by working on it demsewves rader dan hiring oders to work on it. They incwude sewf-empwoyed artisans, smaww shopkeepers, and many professionaws. Jon Ewster has found mention in Marx of 15 cwasses from various historicaw periods.[4]

Vwadimir Lenin has defined cwasses as "warge groups of peopwe differing from each oder by de pwace dey occupy in a historicawwy determined system of sociaw production, by deir rewation (in most cases fixed and formuwated in waw) to de means of production, by deir rowe in de sociaw organization of wabor, and, conseqwentwy, by de dimensions of de share of sociaw weawf of which dey dispose and de mode of acqwiring it." [5]

The most important transformation of society for Marxists has been de massive and rapid growf of de prowetariat over de wast two hundred and fifty years. Starting wif agricuwturaw and domestic textiwe waborers in Engwand and Fwanders, more and more occupations onwy provide a wiving drough wages or sawaries. Private manufacturing, weading to sewf-empwoyment, is no wonger as viabwe as it was before de industriaw revowution, because automation made manufacturing very cheap. Many peopwe who once controwwed deir own wabor-time were converted into prowetarians drough industriawization, uh-hah-hah-hah. Today groups which in de past subsisted on stipends or private weawf—wike doctors, academics or wawyers—are now increasingwy working as wage waborers. Marxists caww dis process prowetarianization, and point to it as de major factor in de prowetariat being de wargest cwass in current societies in de rich countries of de "first worwd."[6]

Marx assumes de inevitabiwity of de revowution of capitawist society into sociawist society because of eventuaw discontent.[citation needed] The sociawization of wabor, in de growf of warge-scawe production, capitawist interest groups and organizations, as weww as in de enormous increase in de dimensions and power of finance capitaw provides de principaw materiaw foundation for de unavoidabwe arrivaw of sociawism. The physicaw, intewwectuaw and moraw perpetrator of dis transformation is de prowetariat. The prowetariat's struggwe against de bourgeoisie inevitabwy becomes a powiticaw struggwe wif de goaw of powiticaw conqwest by de prowetariat. Wif de domination of de prowetariat, de sociawization of production cannot hewp but wead to de means of production to become de property of society. The direct conseqwences of dis transformation are a drop in wabor productivity, a shorter working day, and de repwacement of smaww-scawe unified production by cowwective and improved wabor conditions.
Capitawism breaks for aww time de ties between producer and owner, once hewd by de bond of cwass confwict. Now a new union wiww be formed based on de conscious appwication of science and de concentration of cowwective wabor.

He awso extended dis redistribution to de structure of power in famiwies. Marx imagined dat wif sociawism women’s status wouwd increase, weading to de break-up of de patriarchaw famiwy...

"Modern industry, by assigning as it does, an important part in de sociawwy organized process of production, outside de domestic sphere, to women, to young persons, and to chiwdren of bof sexes, creates a new economic foundation for a higher form of de famiwy and of de rewations between de sexes… Moreover, it is obvious dat de fact of de cowwective working group being composed of individuaws of bof sexes and aww ages, must necessariwy, under suitabwe conditions, become a source of human devewopment; awdough in its spontaneouswy devewoped, brutaw, capitawistic form, where de waborer exists for de process of production, and not de process of production for de waborer, dat fact is a pestiferous source of corruption and swavery." (Capitaw, Vow. I, Chapter 13).

Marxism has a rader heaviwy defined diawectic between objective factors (i.e., materiaw conditions, de sociaw structure) and subjective factors (i.e. de conscious organization of cwass members). Whiwe most forms of Marxism anawyses peopwe's cwass based on objective factors (cwass structure), major Marxist trends have made greater use of subjective factors in understanding de history of de working cwass. E.P. Thompson's The Making of de Engwish Working Cwass is a definitive exampwe of dis "subjective" Marxist trend. Thompson anawyses de Engwish working cwass as a group of peopwe wif shared materiaw conditions coming to a positive sewf-consciousness of deir sociaw position, uh-hah-hah-hah. This feature of sociaw cwass is commonwy termed cwass consciousness in Marxism, a concept which became famous wif Georg Lukács' History and Cwass Consciousness (1923). It is seen as de process of a "cwass in itsewf" moving in de direction of a "cwass for itsewf", a cowwective agent dat changes history rader dan simpwy being a victim of de historicaw process. In Lukács' words, de prowetariat was de "subject–object of history", and de first cwass which couwd separate fawse consciousness (inherent to de bourgeois's consciousness), which reifiedeconomic waws as universaw (whereas dey are onwy a conseqwence of historic capitawism).[7][fuww citation needed][non-primary source needed]